Kämpfer: A Polishman in Tokyo
by TranslatorPS
Summary: When the leading four Kämpfer of Seisetsu get rid of what has become their enemy, they are approached by somebody who's been looking at the entire show. And that's not the rooftop show, but all of the Kämpfer activities. The history is finally provided with some light, and some explanations come about too. All of that from a surprise from the Central Europe.
1. Chapter 1 - Proposition

_AUTHOR, BE INTRODUCED! Hello, people! I'm TranslatorPS, and this is my first shot at a fan fiction. This was heavily influenced by me more than anybody else. There are two so-called OCs in this, me and a friend of mine whom I do not plan on naming._

_LANG. NOTES: Natsuru is always described as masculine (he, his, etc. as opposed to she, her, etc.) despite whatever form he might be in when currently described.  
I know a little bit of Japanese, not too much though. But I have made it a point to keep things like ō in place (trust me, they make a difference in the long scale) and the honorifics are used in conversations that are meant to take place in Japanese. No post-honorific to a name, it ain't Japanese that's spoken, let's put it this way._

_The whole story is written in present tense first person, from the author's point of view. Tell me if you don't like that, I'll keep the thing to myself then ;)_

_STORY/CHAP. INTRO: A moderate knowledge of the anime is suggested, w/o E12, though. This disregards the manga altogether. I never read the light novel either. __Something like half of this chapter is the final fighting scene from E11 of the anime._ Also, I put this story in the future to match my own timeline rather than any timeline the original story. For the purposes of this fanfic, I have modelled a timeline for the actions of the anime series and will follow them as such.  
Currently rated T, might change to M over time, I'm afraid.

_DISCLAIMER: Ah, also. There's a lot of different things in my room, but to the best of my knowledge, none of them give me a direct right to Kämpfer (the animes, the novel nor the manga). I only own myself in this story. Placenames are real, though._

* * *

**Ch. 1 – PROPOSITION**

_**Flashback**_** January 14****th, 2013 - 1.22pm - Galway, Ireland**

'You, my friend, are now a Kämpfer, one of the currently three soldiers who will fight against one another. This Red Contract Bracelet is a sign to you that no matter what happens, you are in this,' she spoke to me, quietly. I looked into her eyes.

'What's the catch?' I ask.

'You die, you're gone.'

'And what about that bloody gender-swap?'

'It just comes with the package. At least for you.'

Remembering one of the many scenes from the book series "The Witcher", I look deep into her eyes. And only find honesty.

**August 15th, 2019 - 10.14pm - Tokyo, Japan**

_There's a show going on, there's a show going on, and if I didn't stick my nose in earlier, it wouldn't have happened, you idiot!_ I think to myself as I run down some sort of street in Tokyo, the name of which I do not know and do not want to know. My aim is the Seisetsu High School and it shows its facade broken by the fence as soon as I turn another corner. My mistake was to leave my vehicle at home, but now it is too late to get back for it.

As soon as the goal is reached, I jump across the fencegate and run for a maintenance ladder up to the roof. As soon as my head pokes out across the ridge, I keep my sound effects to a minimum and quietly crawl on the ridge to a nice, quiet spot by a door which leads to the school building itself. Considering the time it was, it could only be dark and horrid in there, and a quick visual check confirmed at least the first opinion.

Hiding behind that same door, to prevent being seen, I quickly mutter and think of at the same time, _Änderung_. This forces me to change into my male body once again. As I walk out of the hiding and find myself a spot in the shadow of the little tower (I must say, it is a nice, clear sky and the moon was full) which hid me well enough. Looking at the scene ahead of me, I see something striking enough, something that one would not expect to find at 10pm on a Japanese high school rooftop.

Three girls, with their uniforms in what my friends back in Ireland would have called a state, bound by a silver-looking chain (from my experience I know that not everything that shines is gold), sitting tightly together in something reminescent of a triangle. A couple of paces ahead, another girl, standing emotionlessly, staring straight at them. And another one, this time with emotions of evil and similarities, right beside her. By the ridge stood four other girls, who were under the same near-emotionless spell as the one before.

As much as my interest does not span over the four girls at the back, the five further ahead of them are the event of the show, whatever sense that phrase makes or makes not. The tied trio are also Kämpfer – two Reds and a Blue. The Blue's name is Mishima Akane, whereas the Reds are, in what seems to be my order of importance, Sangō Shizuku and Kondō Mikoto. The emotionless gal is called by the name of Senō Natsuru, and her, or rather him, I shall explain soon enough. The last of the five there is Sakura Kaede, a double-personality source of good and evil. For clarity, this is probably the last time I refer to any Japanese name by the Japanese style of surname-first name and further on, I'm more than likely to use the more common layout of first name-surname.

As for Natsuru, despite many differences between the two of us, especially in the background of our lives, we share one major common trait – we are the only two male Kämpfer that I'm aware of. And there our common things end, really. We're from completely different places, different age, different look at things, and not to be rude, different headlevelness. Of course the positive side being for me...

As I think all over what is happening, or what might happen, I skip the fact that the chain-bounded trio awakes. Only Kaede speaking out, 'Oh my, you're finally awake' wakes me myself up from my somewhat complicated train of thoughts.

'You fucking bitch!' I forgot that Akane was still transformed...

'What do you want?' ...but to my thankfulness, Shizuku managed to keep her political face on.

'I want to get rid of you,' Kaede replies. Coldly, as a matter of fact. 'Was her name Tamiko?' This seems to have brought an unexpected reaction from Shizuku. 'You're just like her.'

'No, don't tell me you...'

'Hmm, I wonder.' _Bitch._ 'You're all just getting in the way of the Moderators. I'll get rid of you for rebelling against them. These girls are neither Red nor Blue, but White Kämpfer. They were made just to defeat you.' _Bitch._

'What... What do you plan to do with Natsuru?' Mikoto asks, with a hint of anger in her voice.

'We'll make her our ally. We don't need the male Natsuru, but we do need the female one.'

'What do you mean?' interrogative sentence by Shizuku, thank you.

'Thanks to you, my plan was ruined. I never imagined Red and Blue would combine forces. Natsuru-san was the deciding factor. If Natsuru-san chose to be a boy, you would win. If he chose to be a girl, we would win. Simple, right?' _Simple enough._ 'Mishima-san, do you know why your side would win if he chose to remain a boy?'

'Like hell I do!'

'Because he loves all of you,' striking to the three, not so striking to me.

'Fuck it, I don't get it!' Akane replies, confirming the striking part of Kaede's last sentence, if not statement. I'm actually more keen to it being a statement. 'How does that decide anything?!'

'That's how it was. And he's chosen to be a girl... She chose me,' I'm literally stopping myself from just breaking into a run and dealing a fatal-slash-final blow to Kaede. 'Wanna know why I didn't deal the final blow?' Speaking of final blows... 'I wanna show you a little mercy. So I'll let Natsuru-san defeat you instead. After all, Shizuku-chan, you're my best friend!' _Kaede... that is NOT how you deal with best friends now, is it?_

After this idiotic, semipointless monologue, Natsuru walks towards the chain-bound trio. He raises his hand and conjures a fireball. After a few seconds, his fireball increases in size.

'Goodbye, Shizuku-chan,' Kaede says, as coldly as for the past good few minutes. Natsuru then raises his hand up above his head, lowering the head itself. He notices the little present he gave to Shizuku on their date a good few weeks back, and my senses feel that this broke off Kaede's spell on Natsuru. Kaede, of course, has a shock moment.

'What's wrong, Natsuru-san? You'd better hurry up if you want your reward.' At this, Natsuru lowers his hand and extinguishes the fire. 'Natsuru-san?' Kaede still shows signs of shock.

'I don't need a reward,' Natsuru replies.

'But how?'

'I love you,' Natsuru replies. I hear his sentences starting with _ore _(俺), the Japanese rude-speech word for I, used only by males. This brings a certain bit of happiness to me. As for the trio, they look up and make a sound of shock.

'If you do...'

'But I won't team up with you! I love you, but if I choose you, I'll lose something precious to me. So... I'll choose Shizuku, Akane and Mikoto!'

'Natsuru!' the trio shoots up. I'm glad myself to, because I'd be darn peeved off if the lad decided to lose the man part of him. As for Kaede, she walks back in disgust.

'Then I'll make you choose me!'

The actions that follow soon afterwards are complicated and I couldn't make most of the mess going on on the scene. Kaede summons her katana, and attacks Shizuku, who is able to break free of the chain and counterattack. I hope that the flying katana didn't hit anybody down at street level. Soon, the other two girls also summon their weapons, and so do the four at the back, at Kaede's order. However, at this stage, even my six-and-a-half years of Kämpfering around doesn't help much, as some sort of undescribed before energy flows around Akane, Mikoto and Shizuku. For once, I actually think the same as Kaede, when she says, 'What is this power?!'

'What's going on?' asks Natsuru, and I think the same myself.

Out of nowhere, besides the chaos, I hear a song ringing. Something to the rhythm of Ode to Europe, but I dare not pluck out the Japanese words coming along with it. The chaos starts, with multiple attacks from the trio and no defence from Kaede or her allies at all. I slowly come out of my hiding spot, keeping in the shadow still, to make anything out of things. But it's all fuzzy nevertheless. Girls flying, girls shooting, girls standing confused. Even girls swinging katanas all around. My brain thinks _record!_ but I kindly kick this thought aside as there is already a recording device on the rooftop there, working even. The CCTV camera.

'At this rate, we'll...' Kaede jumps aside. She then turns around and looks at Natsuru standing there by the railing. She grins, in a matter anything but positive.

'Natsuru-san,' she walks up to him. 'Natsuru-san, will you lend me your strength? You do love me, right?' _Shit._

'Sakura-san...'

'You can call me Kaede. If you choose me as a girl, that is. So please defeat them. I'll give you your reward now, so...' Kaede says as she grabs him by his neck and leans closer to kiss. I decide, _enough!_ and start walking towards the two.

'I... I've made up my mind!' Natsuru replies, to my relief. He forces a change on his bracelet and his body shines as he changes. As soon as he does, Kaede awakes and I stop myself.

'Eww, a boy!' she shouts out as she slaps Natsuru across the cheek.

'Kaede-san...'

'Don't call me Kaede!' she shouts out in further fury as she slaps him repetitively across the cheek and pushes him backwards. Then, a loud 'Natsuru!' comes from elsewhere as he is brought down by the trio's weapons to the ground.

'You filthy male. I can't believe you'd call me Kaede. Just who do you think you are?!' Kaede shouts at him with clear anger, as he, rather powerlessly, lays on the bare concrete. 'Hitomi! Sayaka! Rika! Ryuoka!' she calls out. This is actually the first time I hear the four girls' names properly. 'We're done for today. Let's go!'

'Yes, ma'am!' they come along and reply in unison. Then, after a few seconds, which only suggest that Kaede was thinking of something evil, they just fly off. Like bloody birds.

_You may be finished for today, but I'm not even started. Let's hope we get a chance to spar. And let's let me win._

'Natsuru, you bastard! I saw you trying to kiss that bitch! Didn't you choose us?!' Akane runs up and shouts at Natsuru. As for the running up, so do the other two.

'Hey, wait! This isn't the time...' Natsuru tries to defend himself. Seeing that the action is gone, I back up to the door, where I check my phone. It's nearly quarter to 11pm, time flew fast in this action-filled 30 minutes, but I still have business to do here. As the four over there do something that any fan fiction writer could potentially describe as lemon-peeler, I look up some random things on my phone. Some news, some photos I shot a while ago, I simply compare some data. After five minutes or so, I put my phone back into its case and put that then into my pocket.

As I walk out to the rooftop once again, I see the little tense action continue. I walk with a rather brisk step. I chose good shoes for the occasion, as they mark each and every one of my steps with a nice little 'thud!' against the concrete. Yet, they only notice me when I'm about 10, maybe 12 steps away from them. They look a little bit startled, but I can already notice their eyes spanning my body. For the Bracelet.

At this, I raise my right arm and say, 'Red.'

_**Flashback**_** January 19****th, 2013 - 1.47pm - Galway, Ireland**

As I walk out of the primary school complex where I take some extra classes on Saturdays, I look at the sky more than at anything else. This then turns out to be a mistake, as I walk into her.

'Seriously? I didn't exactly expect you here,' I greet her.

'Ah come on. Want an answer for a question today?'

'Hm... why blue and red? Why not another combination?'

'I wish I knew myself...'

Once again, her eyes only show honesty.

**August 15th, 2019 - 10.51pm - Tokyo, Japan**

Natsuru and Akane are slightly startled, but I also say, 'I've no intentions of fighting this evening. It's pointless, and the lot of you are probably tired after what happened here just a while ago.'

'Have you watched us?' Mikoto asks.

'I'd kick myself in the buttock hard if I didn't,' only when I say this I realise that it may not have the same meaning in Japanese that it does in English... They smile at this, though, which is a relief. So I continue.

'Now... this whole thing is reaching its climax. But I'd like to direct your attention towards a little detail which myself I probably could've missed. Take a look at your Bracelets,' I say to them as I point towards their arms. 'What do you notice on the underside?'

'A number...' Natsuru answers.

'**Our** number?' Shizuku asks.

'This is the Kämpfer number, unique to everybody. It's been introduced on something like this Monday. I'm guessing that they're pretty high, the ones that you carry. Senō-san, let me guess, mid-ninety-thousands? Mishima-san... high-eighty-thousands? Sangō-san, gonna hit it hard, am I not, with just below 70,000? Because I know for a fact that Kondō-san here carries six digits already...'

'How do you know our names?' Mikoto asks.

'School records, observations, the similar,' I reply.

'Ah... so what's **your** number then?' Natsuru asks.

I look at my bracelet to make sure that the history is consistent with me. Then I twist my arm to show the number to them. 'Three.'

_**Flashback**_** February 14****th, 2013 - 12.05pm - Galway, Ireland**

As I pick up my cardboard cup of hot chocolate, I turn around. She's standing beside me, about half a step away from me. She looks at me, and I return the look.

'How many of us are there already?' I ask.

'You're good at Maths. Every day about 70-90 new Kämpfer join us worldwide. And it's a month now, more or less, since the beginning. Count yourself.'

'Twenty-six hundred, take or give two hundred?'

'That makes sense...'

'I don't see it stopping anytime soon, that's the issue...'

'Not to worry. Sometime it will.'

**August 15th, 2019 - 10.53pm - Tokyo, Japan**

'Wow... you're here for long... and may I ask, why are you approaching us?' Akane asks.

I nod towards Natsuru. 'Because of him. I intend on finally finishing this whole array of jokes and... actually, I'd rather not say what else I intend on doing here. We're too vurnerable here, and, trust me, walls can have ears if you want them to.'

'So what place are you suggesting then?' Shizuku asks.

'How about your house?' Natsuru suggests, to a minor shock to the trio.

'If my house, then we can walk, or you throw 50 yen each and I'll buy you lot some metro tickets... Having said that, consider my hospitality of throwing 600 yen myself,' I say, with a smile on my face to not to make them feel guilty, yet with an expectation of some odd extra yen from them as well.

'I'm tired, I'd rather pay 50 yen than walk...' moans Mikoto.

'Me too,' seconds Akane.

'Heck, I'll even pay 100 yen,' smiles Natsuru.

'Then that's settled, let's metro it,' finalizes Shizuku.

**A bit later, a bit elsewhere...**

One feature of the metro network in Tokyo that always bugged me is that one never got their single tickets back. I ended up buying an extra ticket once, just for the sake of collections. And I went cheap too, with just the 160 yen fare for that one.

When we walk up to my house and through the mini state of a garden in front of it (never been a fan of greenery much, I guess), I get a surprise that I was semi-expecting. As I take out the key chain from my pocket, I hear, more or less in this order, fire going ablaze, a gun clicking at getting loaded and a number of blades silently swishing out at me.

'Thanks for the tickets an' all, but frickin' tell us who ya exactly are before we go in that house!' Akane goes, as is her manner, rather violently at me.

'Hm... right. Great. You want details, you have them. My name's Piotr Sekuła, I'm a 21 year old guy from Poland who has been put into this scheme against his wish. I travelled to Japan in order to see what the things look like in this centre of Kämpfer activity. Because believe it or not, about 40% of all Kämpfer are in Japan.

'How did I stumble upon you lot? I heard from some random Kämpfer in Osaka, "Hey, there's this action going on in Tokyo, why not look for it there?" So I come, peek around and, kaplow! here I am in front of Seisetsu.'

'Alright, alright, tell us more of that story inside, it's starting to get a little bit chilly here,' Natsuru pops out. I nod, open up the house and let the lot inside, switching some light on beforehand. After we're all in, I close up the house, change shoes and lead them to the sitting room. By that time, they'd returned to their standard forms.

When I came to Japan, I decided to buy a house, because I had the bad feeling that things might stretch out in time. The upside was that, having the comfort of my own house, I was able to outfit it and furnish it with a strong European style to it, keeping very little of the Japanese style. The only thing that I decided not to fiddle with was the bathrooms. I mentioned Osaka though, and that's because for some time I travelled a bit around the place to see what the country was like. Amazing, I must say, without question.

'Tea, anybody?' I ask, going straight to the kitchen, not even waiting for an answer. I set up a pot of tea and bring out some mugs. We then sit down at the table, in an incomplete circle of Mikoto, Natsuru, Akane, Shizuku and me. I can tell from their stares that they demand explanations and backgrounds. And I'm ready to give them what they want in this regard.

'OK, so what would you like me to start with then?'

'How did you become a Kämpfer?' Shizuku asks. I smile.

'Good question, because it also tells a lot of the history of Kämpfer. I can't tell you how I myself became one without telling you the background. And it seems fitting to me that I'll work my way backwards in time rather than forwards.

'So, besides me, the eldest Kämpfer here, and also the second oldest person here, is Sangō-san. Yet you carry a number that starts with 69,000. I'm going to guess that you became a Kämpfer around summer 2017, and don't tell me exactly when, it's not necessary, to be honest.

'I'll also answer another one of your questions, what is my Messenger. I don't have one. I don't have a Messenger because they were introduced in June 2016, if I remember right. Right when I was sitting my Leaving Certificate papers, ironically. They took over the role of directly telling a newly created Kämpfer of what the deallio was around here.

'As to who they took the role over from, they are called the Assigners. I can't give them much of a sensible German name, but feel free to play with the verb 'zuordnen'. These lot were introduced around March I think, of 2015. The reason for the Assigners was the same as for the Messengers, they quality of fights of the newly created was dropping down, to a not-so interesting level.'

'So Sakura-san is not a Moderator after all...' Akane thinks out loud.

'Yeah, I wish too that she were one. However, Moderators don't actually interact directly with a Kämpfer ever since the Assigners came about. From my logic, Sakura-san became an Assigner shortly after the Messengers came about. You know, a series of rather unpleasing yet interesting plushy toys, that only attracted specific kind of people.

'The whole Kämpfer system, to continue the rundown of the history, began on January 1st, 2013. Myself I became a Kämpfer on 9th, but soon after that, things started pacing up. Drastically. We're running a bit above a hundred thousand Kämpfer these days. I'll drop down a bunch of numbers for you here so you can see how things paced up,' I say as I stand up, grab a piece of paper from one spot and a pen from another. Then, I write down a bunch of numbers and years beside one another to show them how the Kämpfer numbers rose. When I get near 2018, they're already looking at the page in disbelief. All of descriptions on the page are in both Japanese and English as I don't want to be looking at a random page and wondering what things mean in some time. I pass the page around.

'We've a lot of Kämpfer today...' Shizuku notes the obvious.

'Speaking of today,' I look at my watch, 'it's nearing half past eleven. I don't think that we should be discussing such things at such a late hour. I've a spare bathroom here, for some reason, and a couple of bedrooms. Feel free to stay here or go back home, but wherever you live, you rely on yourselves now I'm afraid.'

As I look at the lot, I see some looks on their faces that don't exactly mean "yep, we're staying here" nor "nyeah, we're going home", but after a short while, they all settle on staying at my place.

'OK, great, I'm gonna show you the bathrooms and the bedrooms around, but before we get up there, a quick question to all of you. A, or B?'

They get a little bit shocked, but they answer.

'B,' Mikoto.

'A,' Akane.

'A,' Natsuru.

A little bit of hesitation from Shizuku, but she does say, 'C.' The others look at her.

'C as well. I like the way you're thinking, seitokaichō-san,' I say. That also puts a little surprise on everybody's faces, but I then tell them that I have to show them the bathrooms and the bedrooms. So we stand up and head upstairs. There, I show them where what is and leave off with, 'If you're looking for me, I'll be in my room.'

When they head for the bathrooms, I turn around and say also, 'I know that I didn't tell you how I became a Kämpfer yet. But please, don't try to kill me in sleep.' With that said, they nod, smile and I turn back around to my room, leaving the door almost closed but yet open, like I've done for the past six years and a bit.

* * *

_Here, that's the first chapter for you peoples there. Tell me what you think, whether I should continue or not and if the 1st person idea suits you. Second chapter coming to fill things up asap. Nothing promising though._

_Thanks, over and out!_

_MINOR UPDATES DONE ON 1.04.2013... to make the ANs a bit more consise and some style errors were fixed.  
MINOR UPDATES DONE ON 4.04.2013... ah, they changed it to 5 days a week... **twelve years**** ago!** changed the main date to keep things consise._


	2. Chapter 2 - Suggestion

_Alrighty, so. This is the second chapter of Kämpfer: A Polishman in Tokyo._

_LANG. NOTES: I'd like to take back whatever I said about honorifics and Japanese. As some changes happen in relationships, honorifics become obsolete and therefore they don't make too much of an indicator as to what language is actually spoken._

_The story, as before, as is, and as will, sticks to the present tense first person format._

_CHAP. INTRO: This chapter slightly follows the pre-intro sequence of E13, or Kämpfer für die Liebe E01, call it whatever you wish. It also sticks to the episode's "Natsuru's a girl for the day" theme. However, changes do happen compared to the episode nevertheless. The chap ends in kind of a cliffhanger for explanations.  
This chapter sees some development of my character and provides a little bit more explanation to the Kämpfer history. Certain parts of my character follow my true persona in real life, others are slightly amended. The Poland part is true all the way, though. It also sees potential room being made for Natsuru's character being finally developed in such a way that he won't be the idiot of the school._

_FORMAT NOTES: Also, I forgot. Any italics are my own thoughts. Any bolds in the text itself are implications on the word in the spoken language. Otherwise, all is clear, I guess.  
Also, I plan on making my chapters quite some length. The original text for this chapter was counting at just above 4,700 words and these notes put it just past 5,250. The reason why I want them of such a length is because they'd seem quite short in my text editor (I write them with Helvetica 13pt) and also I'm not exactly the fan of short creations :)_

_DISCLAIMER: I may have bought some things in my past, but none of these were any rights to Kämpfer. I only own myself, really, and the OC. Real placenames used._

* * *

**Ch. 2 – SUGGESTION**

**August 15th, 2019 - 11.45pm - Tokyo, Japan**

Just a few minutes after the four people who would be staying over at my house got around the bathrooms and the bedrooms, and after I walked into my own room, do I finally get a chance to look at myself in the mirror. Nothing has changed about my looks – the same long dark blond hair, the same navy jeans, the same sweatshirt that I put on almost two hours ago before leaving. I sigh and sit down at the desk in my room. Besides being slightly incapacitated with a variety of books that I run out of shelf-space for, it also has the liberty of being the spot for my two monitors. The accompanying mouse and keyboard were stored away safely on a sliding shelf just below.

I get my hands on one of the more recently opened books, or rather booklets, and start reading through it at the point where I left off, when I hear the door being opened. I look towards the door, not changing anything else in my body position, only to see Shizuku walking into my room.

'Guess you would like to know a bit more, so you don't actually stab me to death in my sleep?' I ask, jokingly enough. I still don't close the book, and considering what the book is, I am glad that I don't.

'I wasn't planning on anyway, we're on the same team, aren't we?'

I sigh, with a hint of relief and realization. She continues, 'Back on the rooftop, you mentioned school records. What **exactly** do you mean?'

At this moment, I close the book that I'm reading, or at least trying to do so, and lightly slam it on the desk. She notices it straight away. It's the special supplement on the curriculum of the English language teaching for Seisetsu.

'You'll be teaching us?'

'Some of you lot have made a mess. I'm only making a bigger one, at least to you. The cover up story is that I'm a student teacher traveling around the world, teaching different languages at different schools. I found it that it'd be easiest to follow the local scene here if I enrolled somehow in Seisetsu. However, my age doesn't allow for a student – but for a student teacher, yes.'

'Hah... interesting. So we'll have a Polish teacher teaching the English language at a Japanese school. What else do you plan on doing?'

'Language clubs are out of the question anyways, so nothing. I don't want to bother you guys too much with things. I'm an easy-going person when it comes to education affairs, and I'll be trying to be as effective and as light as possible at the same time,' I answer with the kind of relaxed, political voice Shizuku herself usually puts on. She looks at me with a cold impression that warms up very fast.

'I don't know about the others, but, for me, you're more than welcome in our fight against the Moderators,' she finally says after 30 seconds or so of silence.

'Thank you, seitokaichō-san,' I reply.

'And don't call me that, please. Outside of school, call me Shizuku...'

'Right, well, I'll return you the favour, and likewise call me Piotr outside of school. In school or around other students not in this affair, my surname, Sekuła, please,' I allow her to call me by my name. Then, like a bolt of lightning, something strikes me.

'Tomorrow I'll be going to Seisetsu to take a proper look at the school, and I'll be getting familiar with the school layout as well as the timetable. As for the latter, I don't know if a timetable has been finalized for me or not, but...'

'You want me to sort it out so you teach the classes that us lot are in?' she asks me as if she knew the answer already.

'You four and Sakura-san. I'd like to keep close tabs on her as well,' I answer.

'Well, I won't be able to do much until tomorrow, will I be?' as she says that, I already reach my hand out to the computer and press the on button. I'm amazed that I haven't put this thing to sleep before rather than switching it off altogether. Perhaps I didn't expect to be doing such things. When the good old machine boots up (takes ages in the current standards, because I never moved forward from Windows 7. I just couldn't digest the newer systems), I enter the password, making sure that Shizuku caught on to as little of it as possible, and offer her the chair. As she sits down and fires up the Internet browser (good old times seem to still come back), I take the curriculum for Spanish language in Irish secondary schools and go to my bed, where I sit down and open the book.

_I haven't spoken that language in ages now_, I think. _I wonder how much have I forgotten..._

'Is it just me or the Internet is slow...' Shizuku mutters to herself as I look back at the Direct Object pronouns. I know them anyway; I'm only putting on a show. While one part of me is acting as if I were reading the curriculum, the other, bigger one, looks at Shizuku's actions on the computer.

It isn't that I want to know how she does it, as this is outside of my interests. It's more keeping an eye on what she actually is doing on the Internet – whether she's setting up the timetable or looking at things any 18-year-old might be eager to get themselves familiar with. Not that I question that part, I'm sure she already is.

Five minutes later, she turns around in the chair and says, 'Well, everything's all good. You'll have the same class numbers in both male and female sections. I set you up with eight classes altogether, which is a lot I think myself, but if you need to see us all, then you might as well... The original timetable wasn't too different from this one anyway...' she stands up, with a smile.

'Thank you very much,' I reply. She starts heading for the door, when I ask her another question, 'How good is your English?'

She turns around and says, 'Not too bad, I think. I can communicate, but just the accent seems to throw the odd people I spoke with before off.'

'The accent is always an issue with speakers of English that didn't learn it as a native language,' I switch to English, much to her small startle. 'Don't worry about that too much,' I smile, reassuringly.

'Thank you,' she answers, in English also.

_You don't even know how you can tell where one comes from just from their accent of English... _I think, in a positive manner of course, as she leaves the room.

**A bit later...**

I decided to let the guests wash first. I don't care too much about what they are doing, as I'm busy with getting familiar with the timetable Shizuku just set up for me there. After a while, however, I decide to scrap that and head to the bathroom.

When I get myself a proper wash at last, there is no other way for me to go but pass the extra bedrooms before getting to my own one. Wearing a somewhat rugged t-shirt and rather new boxers, I walk down the corridor, to hear sounds that only suggest one thing.

As I thought, some action was going on. No Kämpfer fights, not at all. Rather, a fight for a guy. But by this time, the guy had become a girl. I don't want to guess what had happened here when I was in the bathroom, but at this stage I'm staring at four girls – one standing shocked in the doorway, the other three on the bed. All of them pure naked. I span my eyes over them for a couple of seconds, and decide to let it go.

'Have fun...' I say as I wave my hand down in the same manner that I always did when I ignored something or let something go and, with a stable step as if nothing had ever happened, head over to my room. There, I collapse in my bed and let the sleep overpower me. Before it does, however, I decide to play a little trick on Natsuru. _Ändere Sen__ō__ Natsuru._

'Finally, Natsuru, I thought you'd never change...' I hear Shizuku, who says it in a playful tone. I smile and fall asleep.

**The next day - 7.20am**

I am already awake, standing in the kitchen and making some food. I decide to go for simple scrambled eggs on the traditional Polish sausage. I make a good supply of it – not only is it going to be breakfast for five, but also my lunch. _Buy eggs sometime later on_, I make a mental note.

Soon enough, I hear some people getting downstairs and heading towards the kitchen. As I turn around, Natsuru and Mikoto are standing side by side, followed by Akane behind them. Not to mention Shizuku walking down the stairs.

'So, how was yesterday night?' I place a question, aimed more at Natsuru than anybody else.

'I didn't force that change, somebody else did. And all of them here denied it...' he snaps at me.

'Well, Sangō-san and Mishima-san denied it because they didn't do it. Kondō-san denied it because she couldn't do it in the first place. Yes, it was my doing,' I say playfully.

'Thank you!' the three girls say energetically, as they head over to the sitting room. I nod in response and see that Natsuru wasn't exactly over the moon.

'Stop looking at me as if I were the biggest criminal this century has seen so far. Stop looking at me and get it into your head, please, that one day or another, you'll have to make a choice. Your own choice, on top of that,' I tell him.

'What choice?' he asks dumbly.

'Which of these three you'll get with,' I answer as I take out five plates and share the scrambled eggs evenly between the five, leaving a portion for my lunch. 'If any of these three at all, of course. Sakura Kaede-san is **well** out of question as you have seen yesterday. She doesn't want you the way you're standing there, and you've made your choice in front of nine people yesterday,' I continue as I bring the plates one by one to the sitting room. 'Even better, these three have, one way or another, bloody confessed to you!'

He sighs. 'True... but it's just that... never mind,' he replies in a quiet voice as he sits down.

'That what? You've been hooked onto Sakura-san for years now and can't get her out of your head?' I stare into his eyes. The girls follow me.

'Whoa, whoa, whoa. I've only known you for less than a day and you're already telling me things as if you knew me for months!'

'Because I do,' I place the last word as I move onto the breakfast. 'Itadakimasu.'

Six minutes later, we're finished and I bring the plates back to the kitchen. I leave them in the sink, they can wait. Then I head upstairs into my room, where I change into more representable clothes than a tracksuit that I put on myself just for the breakfast.

When I put on the black jeans, I look at myself in the mirror, not for the first and probably not the last time. The jeans' fate is followed by a clean t-shirt, a clean shirt and a dark-coloured sweater. Then, I take out a black jacket out of the wardrobe and have a final check on my presentation. With satisfaction, I grab my bag with some files and books in it, as well as my laptop bag, which, obviously enough, has the appropriate contents.

Downstairs, it seems that the four teenagers are already ready and just about to leave. Natsuru seems to have changed into a girl for today, however, I let that pass. He's not the only one eager to know about Kaede's doings in this array, I guess. I come along and say, 'I'm offering a lift to Seisetsu.' They don't seem too keen on accepting the offer, but Shizuku makes the choice for them. I already notice that she puts a fair amount of trust in me.

**A bit later at Seisetsu**

As we arrive, I already see students slowly walking into Seisetsu, with a certain bit of dismay on their faces. I don't blame them, it's Friday and they all want to get to the weekend already, I assume.

When the car finally comes to a halt, I switch the engine off, not forgetting about the handbrake, obviously, and we all come out. All but Shizuku seem to have a little bit of shock on their faces, along the lines of 'why is he coming along with us?', as I follow the lot towards the school.

While the four teenagers go into the girls section of the school, I head for the boys as it seems more natural for me. I find an entrance for the teachers and walk in.

'Sekuła-san! I'm glad you could make it here today,' the principal welcomes me warmly as we both walk into the teachers' room.

'Thank you. I found it rather necessary to be able to appear today, so I would be ready to start with next week,' I reply with an adequate warmth in my voice as well as with the adequate level of politeness.

'If you're ready, we might even give you two classes today. A male one and a female one. Just so you can get a jist of the kids, you know.'

'Err... actually, that isn't a half bad idea. I might as well,' I reply, after a little bit of thought.

'So here's your timetable, a map of the school in case you'd get lost, and the class lists.'

I look at the last of the three items given to me. A quick stare down the eight lists and am reassured in my mini worry. There is no latinazation of the names on it. I look at the principal and ask, 'What are the odds of this list being also available in rōmaji?'

The principal looks a little bit startled, but soon approaches a computer and hits some commands. Soon, out of the nearby printer plop out eight lists, much like the ones I'd already been given, but with latinized names.

'Thank you,' I say cheerfully as the principal hands them to me.

'Can we speak outside for a second?' he asks me. I can tell from his face that there is something unusual he wants to tackle.

Once outside, he starts, 'Sekuła-san, I may have done a bad thing letting you teach here, or I might have done a good thing. Please make sure that I believe the latter. I don't want to waste the hours I spent trying to get you a teaching permission here.'

'What are you exactly worrying about?'

'Your language skills.'

'Ah... when it comes to English, they'll have the best insight into it.'

'It's not the English that I'm worrying about, it's your Japanese.'

'With respect and no offense meant, what language are we speaking right now? I can assure you that I'll use the best of my knowledge to ensure that these teenagers get the best English they can get in any Japanese high school.'

'Well, I count on you then,' the principal says as the Big Ben style bell rings right across the school. 'So, do you want these two classes today?'

'Yeah, nothing changes here.'

'Then take the first two that you have today and that's that,' the principal says and I can tell that this is the end to the conversation. As he walks away, I look at my timetable. To my mini-shock, the first class for Fridays that I see reads none other than "F-2-4" during third period. _Curse you, Shizuku..._

**Same day - 10.10am**

Just before the bell rings, I leave the teachers' room for my first class of the day. I head over to the female side and head for the second floor where the homeroom for the female class 2-4 is. Exactly when the bell rings I stand in front of the class door. The teacher which is currently teaching probably has already given the appropriate homework, as she quickly packs whatever she needs to pack and heads for the door. When she opens it and sees me, we exchange bows and she passes me on her way to the next class. At that, I enter the classroom, which is astonishingly quiet.

The array of girls sitting in single desks right from the front to the back looks at me. I return the gaze as I span my eyes over the classroom. As I expected from the female 2-4, I found Natsuru and Akane sitting in their own desks. Them two carried a "what!?" look on their faces as opposed to the "eh?" look on the rest of the class' faces. Without a single word yet, I settle my bags beside the teacher's desk and look at the blackboard. It doesn't take a genius to notice from the different numbers that their previous class was Maths. I take the eraser and clean the whiteboard. Then, with some white chalk, I write the two kanji characters for "English language", which in effect read as "eigo". Only then do I turn around to face the class.

'Hajimemashite,' I greet the girls. 'My name is Piotr Sekuła and I will be your new English teacher from now on.'

Still responseless. I don't think that they know how to handle the situation. After all, I'm probably the first male teacher that has been teaching this class.

'Close the notebooks, we won't need them today. This will be an explanation class rather than an actual teaching class.'

Finally! A response! The nearly-thirty girls close their English notebooks they'd taken out just a broken second ago, probably expecting one's typical class rather than such a surprise.

'OK, it seems that I'm getting nowhere this way...' I mutter to myself in Polish nevertheless. Then speak out in Japanese, with my hands twined together right in front of me, 'Oh-kay. So... you see the kanji I've just written on the board?'

They nod.

I take the eraser and wipe the chalk off. 'Well, with me, you won't be using this name much. My way, we'll be trying to use more English than Japanese in the classroom, therefore, well...' I write "English" on the board, 'this will be the more appropriate description of this class.' I then get my bag and pull out one of the A4-sized booklets. 'This thing here is another thing that I'm supposed to adhere to that I won't. It's the guideline for the **girls** side of the school for English teachers and I won't be keeping to it. Why? Because I'll also be teaching the boys and I'll be teaching them the **exact** same thing as you.

'For you, it means that the level will ever so slightly drop down. The work that you'll be getting will be slightly easier than what you're originally supposed to get. On the other hand, the guys will have it a little harder, so please, nobody tell them that because I'm not telling it to them either,' I smile. The girls smile too, albeit weakly. They seem to slightly warm up to me.

'I'll be dropping the use of notebooks and textbooks to a certain minimum as well. In other words, learning English with me will be about the experience of speaking the language, with a certain element of some rules. In **yet** other words, I'll make it easy on you and yet you'll learn. A lot.'

I can see clear relief on the girls' faces by now. Not so much on Natsuru's, because he knows that whenever I'll have him for the English class on the other side of the barrier, it'll be a bit harder than what he's used to.

'OK, before I move on to the lesson proper, any questions that are relevant either to the subject or to my teaching?'

A girl from the exactly middle of the class puts her hand up and asks, 'Your surname did not sound English, sensei. Can you tell us where you're from?'

'Fair enough, I can. I'm from Poland. And, because I can tell that somebody is going to ask this one, I speak quite the few languages.

'My native language, obviously enough, is Polish. My second language is English, and then, in this order, Spanish, German, Japanese, some Irish and some Russian. Overall, I speak seven languages good enough to communicate,' I say with a small smile. Once again, I smile in class, which I'm well aware of being a mistake.

After a little while, I continue, 'So, is that it? Can we move on?'

**Same day - 11.00am**

The class is almost finished. Being aware of the shortly-upcoming bell, I decide to give them homework for the weekend nevertheless.

'OK, class, this will be this for today. I would like you to do a little bit of homework for me, or actually yourselves, over the weekend. I know I said, notebooks to a minimum, but it's something that I want to see so I can get an idea of what kind of English you have when you have time to think it through. So, what I would like you to do is write something about yourselves or anything else. I want you to express yourselves as much as you can, tell as much as you can. This is kind of a self-assessment on your English – I don't want you asking anybody to help you, just do it on your own and your own only. If you have any doubts, go on, use a dictionary, but please, as much as I can trust it with Japanese and English, hold off with Google Translate.

'So, with that done, I would like to wish you a happy weekend, class has ended,' I finalize today's affairs with the female 2-4 just exactly as the bell rings. When the four-tone ends, I also say, 'Ah, before I forget. Senō-san and Mishima-san, could I speak with you outside for a second.'

They both stand up and walk towards the door. As I grab my bags, I can see the girls eyeing Natsuru as always. I roll my eyes at that and head to the door, which I open. I let the two walk outside first, follow them and then shut the door behind me.

'So, any issues with a Kämpfer teaching you English?' I ask them.

'N-no, I'm OK... I think I'll do fine,' Akane answers.

'And you, Senō-san? You didn't seem all over the moon when I said that I'll be upping the standard for the boys.'

'I guess I'll manage. You're a good teacher, from what I saw today there,' he answers.

'Great. Also, before I left for this class, I got a message from none other than the forsaken Student Council. Seitokaichō-san wants us to meet during lunch break, you know well where.' They nod and I let them go back to class. Myself, I head towards the teachers' room.

**Same day - 12.42pm**

I approach Shizuku's office (ugh, the Student Council here has much better facilities than what we had back in secondary school...) with a brisk step. I see that nobody else is standing outside, so I knock six times (my trademark knock) and upon hearing 'Enter!' I enter without hesitation.

Just as I expected, Shizuku is sitting there in her chair, with a desk right in front of her. The room otherwise has very little furniture to it, just two more chairs roughly in the middle of the room on a carpet. The back wall is decorated with a large golden-coloured emblem, and the walls are painted in a dark navy colour, but otherwise the room is actually pretty empty.

_She may have quite the space, but it's as empty as a piece of newly-manufactured paper_, I think. On second thoughts, I think that despite not having a dedicated room, we had a little bit more to the Student Council that I used to be part of years ago.

'What do you think of the office?' she asks me.

'Rather bare, little character, if you ask me,' I reply, honestly. I get the feeling that my honesty could yet be the end of me.

'You're an honest person, aren't you?'

'I've rather little choice.'

'Anyway, I asked you and the other guys to come for a little reason. I think that we need to discuss the future of our truce here and what's going to happen.'

'Yeah, well, it'd help if the others were here, wouldn't it?'

'True,' she says and presses some sort of a button under her desk. This must have been some sort of a lock release as a door to the right of her desk that I didn't notice before (how could I have anyway, it's a concealed entrance!) opened with all the others walking out of it, in their Kämpfer personas. By that time, Shizuku has transformed herself.

'However, we still don't know how you became a Kämpfer, or what your weapon is, or anything like that,' Shizuku says in her trademark calm voice.

I look at the four Kämpfer standing around me. I don't show any signs of alarm so as to not to provoke them. 'Explanations, they are easy enough to come by,' I say as I sit myself into one of the chairs.

'Before the Assigners or the Messengers came about, a way of creating a Kämpfer was to force them to put on a black bracelet, much like the Contract Bracelets that we all here wear. If done nicely enough, the girl put on the bracelet without questioning her actions. She would have locked it on her arm, initiating the Contract and the bracelet itself would dissappear within an hour.

'As for me, I was told directly to put the bracelet on, under pressure, actually. The girl who had me put it on was a classmate of mine, a friend even so to speak. I didn't know what to think of it, but... well, the next night, I suddenly wake up around 3am and it's like, where's the contents of my underwear, how the heck did my hair grow that long and why on earth do I have breasts on my chest.'

'But... how did you know that you'd become a Kämpfer without a Messenger or anybody like that?' Natsuru asks me.

'Well, the next thing I notice is this red bracelet on my arm with a note sticking out of it. The note explained why the hell am I a girl, what are Kämpfer and so on so forth. There was a small footnote as well, saying that "the only way for me to read this is if I became a Kämpfer". In other words, she was testing if a guy could become a Kämpfer,' I reply.

'And did he, though?' Shizuku asks me and I understand her question perfectly.

_Änderung._ In an instant, I am sitting there as a girl. In the transformation, besides the general gender-swap associated things like the pants issue and the breasts, my hair grows much, much longer, reaching my elbows. It also takes a pure white colour as opposed to the dark blond that I have as a guy.

'Not bad...' Shizuku nods in approvement.

'Alright, I've proven that I'm a Kämpfer, what now?' I ask rhetorically. 'Ah yeah, weapon.' When I say this sentence, I'm actually glad that Japanese doesn't make a difference between singular and plural, as it's all the same to them. I stand up

_Arsenal rück._ Another one of my thought-induced commands forces my bracelet to give off a very short flash, only for me to carry my weaponry.

'The first four Kämpfer can use all three Kämpfer weapons as they wish,' I announce.

* * *

_Well, I guess that this was some sort of a cliffhanger that needs explanations. These are bound to come, don't worry!_

_Thanks, over and out!_


	3. Chapter 3 - Preparation

_How'r'ya lot, welcome to the third chapter of Kämpfer: A Polishman in Tokyo. This one took a longer while due to me returning to school for a daily basis and not getting as much time for writing the story. Well, OK, the time was there, but I just decided to do different things then, and so on certain days I ended up with writing nothing at all._

_LANG. NOTES: As I said, I'm bloody strict when it comes to languages (as strict as I can get). Therefore all German nouns start with capitals, obvious enough. There will be certain non-English titles directly in this chapter._

_The story mostly utilizes 1st person present tense, however, for certain cases I have allowed myself to change to past or future tense._

_CHAP. INTRO: This is a direct follow-on from chapter 2. It sticks to the idea of Kaede "abducting", so to say, Natsuru and Mikoto to herself from E13 of the anime. However, I've made my own changes to that idea. At this stage, I will not be referring to the anime until a later time.  
The chapter may seem a little unsmooth in certain spots. I tried to smoothen it out as much as possible, but I guess there will be a little bit of bumping._

_FORMAT NOTES: Original word count - 4357. Word count w/ notes - 4840._

_DISCLAIMER: I own the rights to this text, and since this text ain't no part of the original Kämpfer works, I don't own that. I only own my own character here and the unspoken-of OC. Real placenames used to a certain extent. _

* * *

**Ch. 3 – PREPARATION**

**August 16th, 2019 - 12.48pm - Tokyo, Japan**

'The first four Kämpfer can use all three Kämpfer weapons as they wish,' I announce.

By saying my weaponry, I mean it literally. On my back, in their appropriate scabbards, "hang" two swords, or rather sabers – my Schwert. The two blades, of the 17th century design of the Polish szablas, always spawn on my back in such a manner that my long hair doesn't disturb the taking out of the blade. The two scabbards are joined across my chest with a leather strap that, if pulled correctly to the appropriate side, will allow one of the blades to pop up slightly, making it easier to reach.

Further down my body, on the belt of my jeans, hang two gun holsters, one per side. The weapon inside both of them is a SIG-Sauer P226 – my Gewehr – in the 18-round version. I share, however, a trait with Akane's weapon – in my hands, the magazine is unlimited. But, whenever the weapon gets into any other hand, the magazine is limited to its 18 rounds.

And perhaps at last, my Zauber, coming out from my hands, yet not touching them per se. Little low voltage "balls" of electricity hang onto the palms of my hands like a puppy to its owner. My Zauber takes the form of controllable electricity, with my full control over the voltage, amperage, frequency and type of current.

'Because of our specific trait, we, as in the first four, are called the Originals. Our job originally was to oversee the battles and join if it was necessary,' I explain. 'Four seems like very little, but there weren't too many Kämpfer at the beginning. And, as I said already, in 2015 the Assigners came about, which really took the overseeing job off us.'

'But the weapons stayed...' Mikoto says.

'Yeah,' I approve of her process of thought.

After a little while of silence, Shizuku resumes the conversation, 'So, now that this is out of the way, I think that it is safe to say that, if you want to, you're more than welcome to be part of our truce.'

'The offer is accepted,' I reply.

'Great. Now, let's sort this Sakura bitch out, shall we?' Akane steps into the conversation in a slightly rude manner that doesn't bother me at all, to be honest. Any of my personas don't care much about cursing, as, well, I tend to curse myself a bit, especially when speaking Polish.

'Is there something that I'm missing out on?' I ask, curiously.

'Yea... today, before class, when we met her she acted as if nothing had ever happened yesterday evening, even as if she remembered nothing of it,' Mikoto fills me in.

'That's because the Assigners are probably the worst of all of this Kämpfer gang. Even the Moderators aren't half as bastardly as the Assigners tend to be. All of the Assigners that I've met so far, which is about 20 or so, had split personalities, so to say. Sakura Kaede is hardly any different – her Kämpfer-related persona knows about the whole thing whereas her standard persona doesn't. The only thing that makes her stand out is that she gets quite rogue in the Kämpfer persona, at least from what I saw over the past month or so. There weren't as many differences with the other ones...' I give a long, rather elaborate, reply.

'So we're putting up with probably the worst of them all?' Natsuru asks. 'How did she get into this...' he mutters.

'I'd bet 15 dollars that we are. Even though 15 dollars isn't much.'

'Fifteen dollars is 1500 yen, it's something,' Shizuku notes and I just wave down my hand to let that pass by. 'Anyway, whoever she is, we still need a plan of action against her, and her comrades, the Whites. I don't really care much about the reason why the Whites are there, and although I am sure that Sekuła-san here has an explanation,' she faces towards me, at which I nod, 'right now, we need to know how to fight against them. We've all seen that they are able to do something nasty together and if Sakura-san is at their side... it doesn't look very nice, I'd say.'

'I say we jus' blow her head of a bitch right off,' Akane growls. I smile at the prospect forming in my imagination, however, decide to go against the sweet idea.

'Some of you might want to get rid of her, however, I say that she may yet prove useful...' I speak out in a slightly suggestive tone. Some of the girls raise their eyebrows. 'You'll see what I mean if I encounter her around you. I don't want to spoil things,' I reply, looking at my watch. 'What the...' I mutter, as I see 5am reading on the watch. Then I realize that I must have put one of the watches with the Central European time on by mistake. I also let that slide along – third thing I rather ignore in the past 24 hours. 'Anyways, I got to get going by now,' I say as I change into my male form, losing the weapons in the process. 'There is still some things that I need to prepare for my first male class today.' And at that, I leave the room.

**Same day - 4.05pm**

I wait patiently near both the front gate and my car. I've been asked by Shizuku to give us a lift to my house – I have totally no idea why mine, but I guess I'll just flow with the things. Classes have ended twenty minutes ago and yet none of the four had come out of the school yet, which starts to slightly worry me.

However, my waiting had soon been rewarded. I see Shizuku walking out, with Akane right behind them.

'Well... good news and bad news,' Shizuku starts.

'Good news, it's the weekend,' I fill in.

'Bad news, Natsuru and Mikoto are nowhere to be seen,' she finishes. 'And I've no idea where they might be gone. But Kaede isn't around here either.'

_Fuck. This ain't good._ Hello, oul' good Polish thought and oul' good Polish curses.

'Well, we can do a little bit of searching later on, but right now, seeing as things are as is, we might as well continue with the previous plan of my house,' I say as I head to the driver's side door. I open up the car and the three of us sit in. Soon afterwards, I join the traffic and drive home.

**About twenty minutes later...**

When we get to my house, we all step in for a little bit of a tea. Seeing as nobody demanded further Kämpfer explanations, at least for now, when we finish the tea, I ask the two girls to come with me to the basement, as I think that it will become useful rather soon.

'I have a gut feeling... we might set this place up as an interrogation room,' I think out loud.

'To question Sakura-san?' Akane asks.

'Yeah, who else do I have to question? It's not like the Whites are of any major use, to be honest. Once their purpose is fulfilled or cancelled, they just fill in the regular Red and Blue factions, depending on who is needed where,' I answer as I set up a chair in the middle of the basement. Then, I come over to a shelf in the corner and pull out a box, half filled with black Contract Bracelets.

'This is what we used to "create" Kämpfer with,' I explain as I pull out a couple from the box and examine them by the light. 'Major difference between these ones and the ones on our arms – you can actually weld something to them,' I continue. Then I pull out a welder and a short chain, four links long. _Why the heck do I keep such crap?_ Without much of hesitance, I pull out a welding mask and tell the others, 'You might wanna turn around. I don't want two blind girls around, to be honest.'

Once I'm sure that they and their eyes are safe, I start welding the chain to the bracelet, so that, when finished, it forms some sort of handcuffs.

'Wouldn't it be easier to just buy a pair of cuffs?' Shizuku asks me when they turn around.

'It would, but one, I can use whatever I have already and two, these do look classy,' I reply. 'And three, Assigners and black Bracelets... err, they don't go together well,' I laugh, in a quite the evil manner. The two girls smile as well.

Having made another pair, just in case, I grab the two pairs and we leave the basement.

**An hour later**

'Could Sakura have abducted Natsuru and Mikoto to turn both of them against us? I mean, she could do anything...' Akane is wondering out loud.

We're all sitting in the sitting room, sipping on some apple juice. The TV is on and I'm jumping back and forth between channels, but seeing nothing particular, switch it off and join the conversation. Just in time, I guess, as something has hit Akane.

'I just remembered! Mikoto and I went to the library after that meeting during lunch and we met a White Kämpfer...'

'But what's that got to do with anything?' I ask.

'Well, Mikoto asked me to go there in the first place. She was saying that she didn't feel right about her and Natsuru,' I roll my eyes, 'and she thought that we should get better at something so that we could... outstep... Shizuku...' she slowed down right towards the end of the sentence. I roll my eyes once again and Shizuku puts on quite the neutral face.

'She probably wanted Mikoto to outstep the two of you at the same time. I don't want to know what she exactly has in mind, and I don't care much anyway, it's yer relationship, not mine, but I say we better find them rather quick at this stage...' I say and stand up from the couch. 'I'm gonna put on a different set of clothes,' I announce as I near the case. 'It sure does feel odd to be the only one in a school uniform...' I mutter to myself.

When I reach my room, I dig through the wardrobe to find my old uniform. The uniform back in Ireland sure differs from the ones one usually finds here, in Japan. I get almost everything off myself, except for the underwear and the t-shirt. I put on the light blue polo on top of my t-shirt, followed by grey trousers fixed by a black belt and a dark navy jumper. I fix everything so it looks like it should and have a run downstairs.

'W-what are those clothes?' Akane asks.

'This is, or rather was, my last school uniform,' I reply.

'I find it a bit too dark,' Shizuku comments. Probably payback for the remark on the student council office.

'Well, hell's blazes, I found it too dark as well. And yet I didn't whine. We all just went along with it, as nobody liked detention just for having the wrong trousers on.'

'Is there a different version for the girls?' Akane asks.

'Yeah, girls usually wore a white polo instead of the light blue and the trousers were navy. Hell, the Moderators must really have a thing for the uniforms, as the uniform is the only set of clothes that changed accordingly,' I mutter. Then, I grab my wallet, my phone and the keys, and with a 'Let's go and find 'em,' we leave.

**Same day - 6.23pm**

At this stage, we're just driving around, nearly pointlessly. With me and Shizuku in the front seats, it leaves Akane to the back. She doesn't seem to mind much. Then, snap, I realise that we're missing something.

'Shizuku-san, there is a couple of CDs in the glove box.'

She opens up the glove box and replies, 'Yes, I see them.'

'Could you give me the one with number two on it?'

She pulls it out and hands it to me. I put it in the CD player and start playing the music from the beginning. Now, that's what I was missing. For some strange reason, I put on a 1991 song for starters (duh, 28 years old by now), Queen's "Show Must Go On" to be exact. How fitting.

Two songs in, Shizuku asks, 'What's on the other two CDs here?'

I raise my eyebrows and have a quick glance towards her, only to see her holding the other two CDs. 'Erm... number two is a mix of English, mostly English, and a couple Spanish songs. Number three is classical all the way through. And as for number one... it's pure Polish songs there,' I reply.

The ride continues without major changes for another two songs, when, with the corner of my eye, I see Shizuku stopping the music, taking out the CD from the player and putting in the one with number one on it.

'Your choice...' I mutter.

The player starts off from the first song also. First off is Lady Pank's "Tacy sami", translated roughly as "Both the same". The rock style seems to slightly up the spirits in the car, however, not too much. The two girls are probably trying to pluck out any common words between Polish and Japanese – good luck, I say. The 1988 song is followed by a variety of others.

'If I randomly start singing to the lyrics, just excuse me, please,' I throw out. They just nod. 'These songs, I've been listening to them for the past seven years, if not more...'

**Same day - 7.20pm**

About twelve songs or so have gone through over the past nearly sixty minutes of driving around. Right now Rotary's "Na jednej z dzikich plaż" is flowing though the speakers of the car. This title translates as "On one of the wild beaches" and soon enough I'll be shocked to see how fitting it is for the moment, though not as accurately.

'I think I know where he might be,' Shizuku just pops out of the blue.

'How sure are you?' Akane asks.

'Sure enough...'

I give the sudden outburst of possible intel a little bit of thought (oh jaysus, I'm starting to get military in my way of thinking) and decide that since there's nothing else to rely on, just plop out a 'Lead the way then.'

**Same day - 7.43pm**

It took a little bit of quiet walking through a mildly forested strip of land before noticing Kaede and Natsuru sitting beside one another on the riverbank. Natsuru of course has to be in his female form, which makes enough sense as he attended school as such. And both of them have to be in their uniforms still... Seriously, Japan... I'd have changed my clothes into civil the split second I walked into my house after school...

'I see them,' Akane says quietly.

'Yeah, they're there...' Shizuku follows up.

'And I don't like what I'm seeing, one least bit,' I mutter out, to my own little surprise in English as opposed to Japanese. They seem to understand, however.

By this moment, Kaede had pulled Natsuru aside so that he is on top of her. A little extra sense that had came with the bracelet just peeps to me that a Kämpfer has changed their form quite close.

'Well, erm... right, here's my idea. I get out there and have a little chit-chat, see what I can pull out of her and you be on standby. Since the Assigners are bastards and can get people under their control, I don't want any of you that close, to be honest,' I say clearly enough.

'Sure...' Akane just agrees, kaplow, nothing special.

'OK,' Shizuku also agrees just like that.

Just as I slowly start descending the quite steep slope, I see Natsuru just popping out. I can only think of the position that the two of them are in. I speed up the pace a little, trying to keep quiet. I make my way in such a manner that I'll come out behind Kaede, because I'm that cruel.

'But this girl knows nothing about it,' I hear Kaede speak relatively quiet, in the same voice as yesterday on the rooftop. A Polish curse flows through my thoughts.

'N-Nothing...?'

'So please teach her all about it, Natsuru-san. What's it like to be done by a guy.'

_The actual fuck?_

'I'll leave it to you.'

_No, on a serious note... ah, this rubbish._ My thoughts seem to organize themselves on their own, as I see Kaede laying on the grass with Natsuru sitting on her legs. Just as he slightly touches her chest, she most randomly exhales and says, 'Geez, don't tease me like that.'

'B-But...'

_There's no buts. Just get on with it._

'Be more confident if you're choosing me.'

_Errrr... yea, keep on going._ At this stage I'm not so sure of the self-organizing thoughts.

Natsuru then just brings his hand forwards and, from my perspective at least, grabs (even though this may not be the most appropriate word for this) Kaede's left breast, as if nothing had ever happened. Kaede herself moans a little and moves her head.

Myself, however, I've managed to stealthily place myself about a foot's distance above Kaede's head, kneeling down on one knee.

'Are you enjoying yourself? 'Cause there might be a better time for me to come,' I say, quietly enough but still slightly loud.

Kaede opens her eyes to see my head hovering a feet above hers and just blurts out, 'Where did **you** come out of?'

'I dunno, any answer fits. I've been all over the globe already,' I reply, coldly enough but also playfully.

'Who are you?'

'A Red, if that's of any help,' I continue with the unusual cold 'n' playfulness mix as I show her my right wrist, making sure that the number is facing me so she can't read it.

'Then perhaps fight him?'

'Seriously? First you need him for yourself and now you're just giving him away like that?'

'What d'you mean?'

'The guy'd be dead before he could transform, and I'm not so ready to fight myself either.'

This must have provoked her, as she most randomly summons her katana into her right hand and swings at me, yet making sure that Natsuru doesn't get hurt. My instinct kicks in straight away, and with a sharp and precise thought and hand movement, I block her katana with a sabre in my right hand.

'Oi, where'd you get that from?' she exclaims as I stand up and move around so I'm on Natsuru's left, and kneel down into the same one-knee-support position.

'I said already, wherever you want it from,' I reply, strictly playfully this time.

'You're still a guy and that looks like a Kämpfer weapon to me...' she thinks out loud. 'No... This can't be...'

'Hm?' I slightly humm.

'The Moderators told me that Natsuru-san is the only male Kämpfer,' she mutters.

'It's not exactly the first time they forgot about me.'

'But you got your weapon out without transforming...,' she continues. 'I never thought that I'd have to meet one... Are you... an... Original?'

I just twist my Bracelet so that she can see the number. I can see her cheeks going a little bit pale.

'What do you want?' she just asks.

'Those guys, Sangō-san, Mishima-san, Kondō-san and Senō-san here... they've decided to fight against the Moderators and against the Moderators' will. They've decided to not to be fooled. I have been, for over six years. I might have enjoyed my extra traits, I might have enjoyed the fights, I might have possibly enjoyed that female body, but don't quote me on this one. But when I came around here and learned of what these lot are plotting... I realized a certain amount of things. I know the Kämpfer history, I know what happened, because I was a part of it. But now, they've got an Original at their side. But guess who else could potentially become useful.'

'Enlightnen me,' she smirks.

I stand up. 'An Assigner.'

I think that she has had enough. And then, next thing I know, I hear a rustle behind me. I swiftly turn my head around to see Mikoto standing there. Natsuru also notices her.

'Oh, Kondō-san, you're here already,' Kaede says. My instinct has me look at Mikoto's eyes.

'Expressionless eyes. Again,' I mutter in English. 'I guess that some people just never learn.' Then, I whistle out towards the slope. Without a moment of hesitance, it seems, Shizuku and Akane pop out, changed into their Kämpfer forms already.

'That didn't take too long!' Akane shouts out as soon as she's within 5 meters of us.

'Just about long enough for me to get annoyed already,' I reply. 'Seems like we have another episode of "Piss Off a Kämpfer" today.'

'How?' Shizuku asks.

'Look into Mikoto-san's eyes...'

Just as if on a cue, Mikoto turns her head towards the two girls. 'I was not told about this. You will pay.'

'Imma-fraid that we got no more money on us!' Akane blurts out back at her.

'Natsuru-san, could you get off me, please?' Kaede asks, rather politely. The guy just gets off her and Kaede herself stands up. 'Very nice indeed, getting an Original on your side. But it seems that I have somebody on my own side now, and it suits me to fight you. Now.'

'That's a certain text,' I say, half-quoting Shakespeare, even though that's just any random line that one may say. Without much further thought coming into my actions, nor words, I say, 'I say we first knock Mikoto out of the trans and then KO Kaede.'

'I like that,' Akane agrees.

'Sure,' Shizuku follows.

'Did you just call me Kaede?' Kaede shouts out.

'Sorry, force of habit,' I reply, with a rather cocky tone. She summons her katana again and strikes at me, but I just get the sabre out again, slide aside and let her slide past me, hitting her katana so that it just falls down from her hand. 'Get in line for being defeated, Assigner!' I shout at her. _Änderung mit Schwerter und Zauber gradeaus._ Having ordered a slightly more complex command, I take a little bit longer to change – however, the transformation still doesn't take more than a second. The weird combo of the command causes me to transform with my sabres already in both of my hands, and on top of that, charged with electricity. I genuinely have no idea what the Moderators thought of when assigning "gradeaus", the German for "straight" as the two-hand command. Makes very little sense, if does any altogether.

'What's the idea?' Shizuku asks, with her eyebrows raised as she takes notice of the unusual weapon.

'A shock,' I reply as I step forward a little bit. Mikoto transforms herself only now, which might be a potential tactical error. She summons forth her katana and steps towards me before breaking into a run at me. Seeing as what's going to happen, I decide to brew the colloquial beer but have Mikoto drink it instead. When she's two steps ahead of me, I slide aside, so that she has no ways of striking me. She almost trips over but remains balanced.

Myself I start upping the voltage slightly. I settle for a 350v dc per blade, which is not too strong, but enough to knock somebody out when doubled to 700v. I turn to face Mikoto, who has already turned around to face me herself and prepares to strike at me again. In reply, I cross my swords across my chest in a manner that they're ready to be moved upwards. As she starts to break for the run against me, I move the blades upwards and as soon as she is running already, I swing the blades forward, separating them at the same time. This accumulates the comined voltage and a nicely sized ball of pure direct current electricity just hurls towards Mikoto. The speed of the electricity is high enough that she is not able to defent herself and the ball hits her right above her breasts.

_One dealt with, one more to go._

As soon as my brain composes this thought, Mikoto collapses. Her eyes change, giving me a clear sign that the connection between her and Kaede has been lost.

'Wow...' Natsuru mutters out.

'You could have just used the Zauber alone,' Shizuku points out.

'Hell, where's the fun in that?' I reply with a different type of cockiness. Then, I switch to Polish, for another undescribed reason, 'And now, what to do with you... Hm... Oh I know. Knock you out.'

As I say, I proceed to knock Kaede out. She picks up her katana and attacks me, but I just continue with the electrized blades theme. As soon as she slids past me (yep, another swift defensive move-aside), I up the voltage up to 600v dc per blade, walk up to her and slightly touch her long hair with my right-hand sabre. The voltage just slids along through the hair and as soon as it reaches her head, causes her to fall.

'Jeez, she's so full of herself,' I mutter. Then, I take out one of the black bracelet cuffs I made before and put them on her hands. As soon as both of them lock, I get her up to a position that can be considered standing. Meanwhile, Shizuku is trying to wake Mikoto up, Natsuru's standing there nearly pointlessly and Akane is changing into her typical form.

'I know about the thing you set up in your basement, but I think that we might go to Natsuru's place instead,' Shizuku says as soon as she gets any signs of response from Mikoto.

'I don't care as long as I'm driving,' I reply. _Änderung, keine Waffen._

* * *

_So here's the chap for ya._

_Just if you're wondering, the translation for the Polish line before the Kaede KO is "A teraz, co zrobić z tobą... Hm... Ah wiem. Znokautować Cię."  
I don't think that Google Translate has enabled speaking out loud of the input text for Polish yet... So Google IVONA and they'll read it out to you :D_

_Thanks, over and out!_


	4. Chapter 4 - Acceptation

_Welcome back... well, I'm sorry! This one took a ridiculous amount of time to finish (2 1/2 months, yep!), but so many things accumulated... and I ended up rewriting a large portion of the chapter as well...!_

_Following the suit of the previous chapters, this is all present tense 1st person from my perspective._

_CHAP. INTRO: Background, discussion, flashback. This is the best way to describe this chapter. The until-last-chapter-unspoken-of OC gets an identity in this chapter!_

_FORMAT NOTES: Classic. 4721 before author notes._

_DISCLAIMAAH: Kämpfer ain't mine, dudes! Just this story, just my character, just the OC!_

* * *

**Ch. 4 – ACCEPTATION**

**August 16th, 2019 - 8.02pm - Tokyo, Japan**

I might have just said that I don't really care, but, perhaps, deep down inside me, I actually do.

Things are getting, speaking very vaguely, quite odd. Quite strange in their own manner. Even as a 21-year-old, I have gone through a certain amount of different things. Moving to Ireland for 4th class of primary school, moving onto one of the best secondary schools in the province and, best of all, scoring a 600 in the Leaving Cert. Moving onto one of the best universities in the world as well. And besides that, the Kämpfer shenanigans. Bothering me for over six and a half years now. Way too long. Way too long with that long pure white hair, ready to be called at any stage just to fight other girls.

_Even as a Kämpfer, I haven't lost my morality._ Indeed. Some may assign morality as a religion-related issue – and maybe a lot of my morality has sourced in religions. They say that there is a little bit of truth in every lie. Anyways.

_This isn't the first time you've come to Japan. Probably won't be the last either._ My mind is racing through my past. Indeed, in 4th year I've been chosen as a single student for a student exchange program with a certain Japanese school. Complications had to come about that time. It struck me back then in its own way – I'd have expected to go to Spain, as I excelled in Spanish (not that I don't speak the language these days, 'cause I do at times). And on top of that, the only trace of my school doing anything with Japan was a photo hanging in one of the corridors. And it was from 1999. Yet, Japan... this place always struck me in its own way.

My character was, and is, always, at least in my own humble enough opinion, strict in its own way, concentrated. Relatively always focused. Or maybe it's just my mind playing psychological tricks with itself. Forcing me to think things that I may not actually be.

'Sekuła-san,' I hear a voice calling near me.

_Snap out of it._

'Sekuła-san.'

'Yes?' I reply while turning sideways, to see Natsuru asking me.

'How will we take Sakura-san to my place? Your car is only a five-seater.' Yes, indeed.

'As much as I don't like doing it, I guess that we'll have to put her in the boot,' I reply. Natsuru is slightly shocked by it, but then relaxes.

'I guess...' he replies.

_Don't tell me, is the guy starting to smarten up? Wow, a miracle at the Arakawa?_

Soon enough we reach the car. With Kaede placed safely enough in the boot (my self-conscience won't forgive me that no matter who she is or what she does...) and everybody else in the car, we pull off.

**About 25 minutes later**

Soon enough I pull by Natsuru's house. His place differs in that it doesn't have any good spot to park the car at, which might as well end up with a ticket behind the wiper if I'm lucky enough. Somehow I don't expect that luck to swing my way, but I'm open to surprises.

'Let's get together in my room,' Natsuru says. I raise my left eyebrow and look at him. 'It just seems natural,' he explains. I nod and move onto getting Kaede out of the boot and into the house with as few witnesses as possible, if any.

Once in Natsuru's room, we stand or sit, whatever whoever wants to do. Kaede is still bound by my cuffs; we place her in a sitting position. Natsuru goes to the kitchen to get something to drink for us.

'How soon will she regain consciousness?' Shizuku asks.

'Soon enough. The shock wasn't even an entire second long, and 600v is mild enough. It probably lost some of its strength while going through the hair as well,' I reply. Shizuku nods.

'It surprises me that she didn't put up more of a fight,' Mikoto says.

'She was rather fierce yesterday afternoon,' Akane adds in.

For the next two minutes we all stay in silence, with nothing else to add in. Soon enough, the silence starts to become more and more awkward, with me as the only guy in a room of three-and-a-half (an unconscious person counts as a half) girls. However, I do not let out any signs of that.

'Wait a second, where the hell is Natsuru-san's Messenger?' I jump out of the blue, for two reasons – not only to break the awkward silence, but also to actually enquire the plushie.

'It's the tiger on the shelf there...' Akane mutters. I look in the direction that she's pointing and indeed I see my object of interest. With its guts sticking out, it doesn't exactly form the most pleasant sight, but it's better than nothing. 'Just what were the Moderators thinking of when they created that...' I mutter in Polish. 'Just what...'

The plushie seems not to move at all, nor speak for that matter. I inspect it closely, without touching it though. Just as I walk away from the shelf, Natsuru comes in with a tray with a pot of tea and some cups.

'Hey, Natsuru-san, why isn't your Messenger reacting?' I enquire.

'I dunno, that plushie isn't worth half the money it's sold for,' he replies bluntly, but it seems to have awakened the bloody thing.

'Hey, I'm useful!' it jumps off the shelf and approaches us. 'Oh my, why, isn't that an Original I'm standing in front of?' it "thinks" out loud as it stops about a step away from me.

'As much as I'm not the greatest fan of that name, yes, you are...'

'And wouldn't that be Sakura Kaede there? What a gang you've got here... You know you should've gotten rid of her...' it mutters.

'She might become useful...'

'Useful, useful, useful... the only thing that she might be useful for is getting her head chopped off,' the plushie keeps on bragging on. 'Damn European Christians... their morals...'

_Good fucking job at pissing me off!_

'Natsuru-san, permission to give this Messenger a proper European massage á la "bin"?' I calmly ask.

'Permission given,' he replies much to my satisfaction. As soon as I hear this, I proceed to pick the plushie up by its neck.

'Wha... wha... what are you doing?!' the tiger screams.

'I'm afraid that this Original that you were standing in front of just got pissed off,' I say calmly, exactly in the opposite tone of what might be suggested from that sentence. 'You know why?'

'No idea.'

I start swinging it mildly. Then I turn to face the bin and increase the speed of the swinging. 'No-one who has at least one bit of brain in their head calls me a Christian! Because... I'm... fucking... atheist!' I shout at the toy as it lands in the bin, perfect 3-point score. 'Learn that!'

'Ro-oger tha-at...' the plushie mutters from the bin.

'Ugh... anyways,' I turn around to face the others. About two seconds later, Kaede seems to have awakened.

'Wh-wh-where am I?' she mutters.

'In my room,' Natsuru butts in.

'What am I doing here?!' she suddenly jumps up and tries to swing her arms. However, the latter is stopped by the black bracelet cuffs behind her. Seeing that she won't be able to move around much with the cuffs on, she sits back down.

'Enjoying the priviledge of being alive,' I give her a cold reply. Everybody else in the room looks at her, in an annoyed matter to keep the vocabulary used mild. 'As I already mentioned, for this thing to work out, we need an Assigner. And who better is there than the one that has "assigned" the four post-Messenger-introduction Kämpfer in this room?'

'You basically want me to fight against my bosses...' she mutters.

'Not the first time this has happened. Sacrifices need to be made.'

'What are the terms?'

'You want negotiations?'

_**Numerous flashbacks in my head from July 2015 * .**_

'I can offer negotiations. Let's start with the most simple one,' I say rather cockily. _Zauber rechts._ As the little electricity ball forms in my right hand, I raise the hand up towards her.

'You're not going to kill me if you need me,' Kaede says, rather matter-of-factly.

'Of course not,' I turn around to Natsuru then. 'Pull that idiot out of the bin, please.' Without further questions, Natsuru walks over to the bin and pulls the plushie out of it. Then he walks back over to me and holds him in the air about two metres away from me.

'It's not you that is the object of the negotiations, it's this little guy over here,' I say as I move my right hand so that it faces the plushie. The plushie starts shaking a little bit. 'I wonder what 500v does to **alive** plushies...' I think out loud.

'Alright, alright. I get your point. Don't treathen him,' Kaede blurts out, but I don't lower my hand. Her eyes change to express a little bit of worry and I notice that immediately.

'Hm. OK. Here's a question for every single one of us. Has any single one of us become Kämpfer after having agreed to it? In other words, has any one of us given permission to become a Kämpfer or anyone related to it? Plushies don't reply,' I place a question.

'No,' Shizuku replies firmly.

'No,' Akane follows.

'Nope,' Mikoto soon thirds.

'Not at all,' Natsuru forces his opinion.

'Well, me neither,' I continue the series of "no"s. 'And you?' I face Kaede specifically. From reading her face, I can tell that she's not handling this very easily.

After about a minute or so of silence, she gives a reply, 'No.'

'As much as I don't like to admit it, no... I can tell you my story if you want me to.'

'Anything to kill time,' I reply. 'Or clear things up, rather.'

Kaede clears her throat. 'About three years ago, in the middle of June, I was walking down in the shopping district streets. I wasn't looking for anything specific, just strolling down. But then, I stumble upon this toy shop. Behind the window was an interesting plushie.'

'The Burnt-alive Lion,' Shizuku butts in.

'Indeed. I fell for it instantly. Without any hesitation, I just go and buy it. When I come home, I place it in my bedroom and that's it. For the next while, it just lays there, it does nothing. I would have thought nothing of it. Every so often I would just look at it, get the dust off. On one occasion I ended up washing it entirely.

'Shortly afterwards, more plushies from this series started coming out into the shops. I started buying more and more of these, as a hobby. They became something big for me, and I ended up with a few hundreds of them. Now that I look back, I'm amazed at all the cash I spent on them.

'Anyways, on one rather chilly evening just before Christmas in 2016, I walk into the room that I've dedicated to these plushies. And, all of a sudden, the Burnt-alive Lion speaks to me. I'm amazed and disturbed at the same time. And then, it starts explaining things weirder than talking plushies.'

'The Proxy War, yes?' I interrupt.

'Yes... It is on that evening that I was officially called an Assigner. I was told that my job was to give out these plushies to different girls so that they could start fighting.' As she speaks, I cancel out the Zauber, pull out a notepad from my trousers' pocket and a pen and scribble down a note that says, roughly, "She's in her normal form and talks about the Assigner form", then show it to the girls and Natsuru. They raise their eyebrows slightly. Then I tear out the note, crumple it and shove it into my pocket along with the notepad and the pen.

'And then, half a year later, I end up with one of those,' Shizuku speaks. 'Then Akane after another year or so and Natsuru about half a year ago...'

'And we all know when and how I got one,' Mikoto finishes the sentence somehow.

'A welcome-back present indeed,' I remark as I call up the Zauber again and resume scaring the plushie. At least somebody here is having a little bit of fun. 'Alright, now that we know your little story, and I don't really care if you just stuffed us with lies or told the truth and anything but the truth here, let's get onto business.'

'Business, huh? You do realize that there'll be dire consequences if I disobey the Moderators?'

'And there'll be dire consequences if we continue on fighting,' I rebuke. 'I don't know much about others, but unusually enough for Poland, I'm an only child. Had I died during the past six years... I don't even want to think of the alternative reality in which my family and friends would live in.'

'Are you trying to play with my feelings?'

I think for a second. 'Not really, no... but I'm gonna try something else out...'

'Hm?' she raises her eyebrows.

'Y'know how this Bracelet reads "3", right? That means that I've control over almost anybody that got into this mess with a number higher than three. So, let's see...Ändere Sakura Kaede und änderung mit alle Waffen,' I call out the command. To my amazement, the Kaede part works like a wonder. The other part, however, works like any other day beforehand. I lower my hand from the plushie.

'Hey, look guys. Guess who's here? Your beloved Assigner,' I turn around to face the four Kämpfer around me and announce mockingly.

'You bitch...' Kaede calls out to me.

'Bastard. I'm a guy, remember that much,' I cut back.

'And I hate guys,' she rebukes.

'Then what about him?' I point towards Natsuru.

'I fell for the girl Natsuru, not for the guy.'

'No, oh no... Senō Natsuru is Senō Natsuru in no matter what form he's in. The difference is the body, but as for the mentality... he's still himself. Same with me, I'm myself right now, although the Border Guards may have a completely different opinion on that... In other words, you fell for Senō Natsuru, not for the female or the male Senō,' I put forward my philosophy.

'Cut out the bullshit, you know what I mean,' Kaede sharpens up her language step by step.

'Ekhm... if I may interrupt, this isn't what we're here for,' Shizuku butts in, thankfully. I glance at her briefly before nodding and turning back towards Kaede.

'Now, now, what does it take for you to get on our side...?'

'I won't ever be there, so don't bother,' Kaede replies.

As a means of convincing, I pull on the left strap on my chest to pop out my left-hand sabre and then proceed to pull out the SIG into my right hand. Upon contact with my Zauber, the two weapons charge up with some electricity as well.

'This is my favorite combination of weapons, Sakura. I've used it so many times that it only takes a split second for me to align the gun and shoot. Or slice the saber in such a path and at such a speed that you won't know and your head won't be where it should be. Also, don't forget that your hands are still in the handcuffs... And the bracelets cannot be destroyed at all,' I explain her situation. 'But, you yourself had said that I need you and won't kill you. So I'll restrict myself... to injuries only.'

'I'm Kämpfer-related, injuries will heal very rapidly,' she cuts back.

'I'm well aware of that. But it doesn't matter. What does matter is your cooperation. And it shall be, one way or another, achieved,' I grin, mischieviously. Unfortunately, I hear the ringtone of my phone all of a sudden. My grin disappears and I cancel out my right-hand weapons so I'm able to fish out my phone from my pocket. I slide my thumb across the screen to pick-up as soon as I recognize the number. It seems that this single number didn't save on my phone, but rather on the American SIM card, which, as of now, is stored away at my home.

'Jane... seriously? You couldn't pick a better time,' I greet the caller in English.

'What, why?' she replies, slightly startled.

'Well, to cut a long story short, I'm in the middle of negotiations with an Assigner... you know what a pain in the ass that is. Especially that this one seems very, very uncooperative.'

'Why are you negotiating anyway? What for?'

'Hah... There's a bunch of high-number Kämpfer over here that decided to fight against the Moderators. So much that there were a few Whites called in. So I decided to join in, see what happens,' I cut another long story short.

'Are you serious?' Jane brings the tone of her voice up.

'Totally. I mean, we're in this for way over six years now, it's excruciating and all... don't you want this to end too?'

'Eeerm... well I guess yeah...'

'Where are you anyway?' I ask her.

'Spain, up in the north.'

'It's warm, isn't it?' I ask in Spanish.

'Yes it is,' she replies in Spanish also, before returning to English. 'What about you? I know you were in the States the last time we've spoken, but that was in March...'

'I... I'm in Tokyo.'

'And what exactly are you doing there...?'

'Officially, teaching English in a high school. Unofficially, bringing an end towards the Kämpfer system.'

'Well, good luck then,' she's about to hang up.

'Wait, one thing. Mid-November, can you be in Ireland then? I've a plan and it'd be nice if you were there,' I quickly ask one last question.

'I'll see what I can do,' she replies. 'Till next time then.'

'Yeah, till next time,' I say one last thing before hanging up. I then shove my phone back into the pocket and resummon my right-hand weapons.

'You all probably wanna know who that was, don't you?' I say nonchalantly. They nod, so I tell them, 'That was the **second** Kämpfer, the one who gave me this bracelet in January 2013. Surprisingly enough, we are still in contact.

'But here's the best bit, Sakura. I'm Red, she's Blue. And yet we've cooperated for more than six years and nobody has ever laid a finger on us. Here, Sangō-san decides that she's had enough and gets Mishima-san, Senō-san and Kondō-san to work with her against the Moderators and you pop out of the blue with the White Kämpfer, which is next to ridiculous.'

Mikoto then walks forward to Kaede, making use of my guard being high up and her being unable to really move.

'Tell me... what's the point in all of this?' she asks. 'You're probably the closest to the Moderators out of all of us... you must know a reason or something... do you?'

'I do know a reason, however, I cannot tell it to you right now because it's quite complicated and needs explaining where things started,' Kaede replies.

'Scheiße,' I mumble. 'The last thing I need is Sakura-san in Ireland, for crying out loud...'

'Not Ireland, no. Ireland will be just a stop-over, if you want to see what I have to show you, of course. The planet where all of it started is where I'd intend on going to.'

'Even better...' I mumble, before thinking for a while. 'Ah fuck this altogether. Female class 2-D will have a trip with me to Ireland in November. Bad thing is, you're 2-B, however... on the other side, that's a good thing.'

'What, a school trip to Ireland?' Natsuru tries to catch up.

'Yeah yeah, whatever, the milk has been spilled and mixed with the beans, who cares by now. I know that it's the other end of Asia **and** Europe, but that's what it is.

'All of this mess started in Ireland when it comes to this planet. The second Kämpfer's cousin is the one to receive the Bracelet first. As the other three Originals, of which one is obviously standing here in this room, she's also alive and in good shape. What we need to do is to access some things in Ireland and put an end to this mess... Wouldn't **you** like to do that as well?' I ask Kaede.

'What, a school trip?' Kaede asks. 'You, why?'

'I guess your class didn't get the memo that I'm your new English teacher...' I reply in a slightly bored tone. Silence falls upon the six of us for the next few minutes.

'Hm... alright... ceasefire, I guess, is our best choice for now...' Kaede thinks out loud. _Keine Waffen._

'Ceasefire then it is. With a penalty for breaking it by any of us,' I settle on the idea.

'What's the penalty?' Akane asks.

'Your Messenger... well, they won't be alive after breaking the ceasefire,' I name the penalty.

_**Flashback**_** - December 2017 - New York City, NY, the States**

I walk without the least care down the Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. I'm somewhere in the Seventieth Streets and heading north. Or rather, to the Central Park. I've been in New York for a few days already on a little break from university life and yet I haven't paid a visit to the Central Park. How shameful, I must say, to be honest.

As soon as I reach my destination, I take out my camera and start making some more or less random photos. Anything to prove that New York can look nice in snow. Trees, hedges, benches, not so much for the actual walkways though, as they are rather busy with people, although it's quite dark. So much for winter, when you want to make photos at 6pm and are given darkness to deal with as a punishment. Although, I must admit, some night shots come out to be better than daytime ones.

After about 30 minutes of pointless strolling down walkways and making bajillion of photos that are probably going to suffer from severe deletion when I get to the hotel room and see what I managed and didn't manage to capture neatly, I stumble upon a couple of girls walking down that same walkway that I currently am. They're both holding onto a plushie each. Nothing amazing in that, I must say. But, at that stage I'm not yet aware of who they really are – and I'm going to put the cold and thus their jackets and gloves covering their arms and hands completely to blame this time around.

I give both of the girls 16 years of age each, no more than that. I sit down at a nearby bench that doesn't have any bushes blocking the view from for about 100m around me. That's about enough for me to see the situation around me and arm up if necessary.

Inside me, there are two alarms going on at full blast. The first one is the one to watch out for anything. The plushies that the two girls are quite similar to what I've already happened to see and associate with the Kämpfer system. The second one is the one that's telling the first one to shut the hell up. In other words, my mind was racing through too many possibilities.

The two plushie-embracing girls sit down at a bench roughly 50m away from me. Within the next minute, another pair of girls come up to the sitting duo. I can't hear the discussion going on between them much, but at a certain stage I can make out shouts as opposed to plain discussion. Interestingly enough, as opposed to four voices, I hear six, yet nobody came to the bench besides the two girls earlier... _Messengers._

I examine my surroundings before seeing that there is still enough people to take notice of any sudden happenings. This, unfortunately, means that I'm not able to transform without people noticing. Even though I'm blond-haired and my hair is rather long for a guy, winter does its job at darkening my hair, so sudden hair-growth and the color turning from strawberry blond into snow-white within less than a second is more than bound to get the attention that I don't require at all.

Instead, I decide to go for the undercover-cop style of thing. I get my camera up and working once again and start making more photos, while getting nearer to the ongoing discussion. Once within good hearing range, I settle on a bench once more, not stopping my fascinating photoshooting experience, sarcasm switch off.

'Who do you think you are, storming into our base last week like that? Goddamn Reds, they've no respect for anything,' I hear one of the seated girls shout at the standing duo. The statement, as expected, gets into me – I'm a Red Kämpfer after all.

'Likewise, Blues! What was that about taking turns at spying on our base three weeks back? We couldn't leave without fifty thousand photos being taken, for crying out loud!' one of the standing ones retaliates. As if on a cue, I take a photo of them, but they don't notice at all.

'You've got problem with gathering intel on the enemy?'

'I'm surprised that the lot of us isn't fighting yet...' one of the Reds comments.

'Then bring it on! I don't care if it's Central Park, if it's fighting that you're looking for, you've got it!'

_Now a brand new Kämpfer merchandise product – Trouble at the Central Park! Coming soon to a Central Park bench near you!_

As if on a cue, one of the Reds transforms and wields a pair of daggers in her hands. The other Red also follows suit and her right hand is soon taken by a handgun. Within seconds I recognize the handgun to be a Browning Hi-Power in the nine-mil 13-round version.

The Blues don't waste any time either. One of the girls soon is seen with an Italian rapier – I must say at this stage that I am not shocked by the Moderators' choices of weapons at all. The other Blue surprises me with no weapon, yet having transformed. _Damn, probably a Zauber. Could be wrong though._

The four girls soon proceed to a clearing where a fight ensues. I decide to take the opportunity of the people's attention being turned to the girls and quickly transform. When the primary and secondary characteristics are where they're usually supposed to be, I quickly jump onto a nearby lantern and watch the fight from there.

What really troubles me is that the girls have the guts to fight the Kämpfer way in the open public. It means that people are going to quickly start gossiping and, to be completely honest, the last thing that the 70-odd thousand Kämpfer across the world need is gossip starting in such a place as NYC.

The fight progresses with neither side being on any advantage. The Blues fight just as well as the Red, despite the Messengers mounting on the Blues' shoulders. However, about seven or eight minutes into the battle, the Browning girl shoots a bullet – not the first one this evening – at the rapier Blue. She avoids the bullet by ducking towards the right, but the bullet still lodges its way into something...

The plushie's head. The plushie, as the laws of physics order, falls down onto the snow-covered ground without any sound. The fight stops immediately. And, within the next ten seconds, a blue aura covers the Kämpfer. From the reaction of the other three, they don't know what's going on either. Without any doubt in my actions, I jump off the lantern in such a trajectory that would allow me to land among the four girls.

When I land, I'm forced to squint my eyes by the flash of light that happens. When I can finally open my eyes again, my jaw drops somewhere to the mantle. I don't believe in miracles. I didn't ever and I probably won't ever. But this is definitely cliassifiable as one...

* * *

_Whaa!? A cliffhanger again? Well, I decided to cliff-hang this chapter as well._

_*) at the start of the Sakura v. me discussions, I mention some flashbacks. This is referring to my other story, "Break the Laws of Physics Twice", which is a crossover written to fit with this story timeline-wise. But I don't imagine the events that I think of in the flashback to appear for a damn good while..._

_Anatatachi wa ore no tomodachi desu, ne? Well, if you are a good person even, plop down a review or something! ;) Over and out!_


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